An analysis of 1,231 heart patients at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that overweight, normal and underweight patients (those with BMIs under 30) had a 76 percent increase in risk of sudden cardiac death compared to obese heart failure patients (see news release).

Think about that for a minute.

When the study compared just normal and underweight people with those who were obese, they found the former group to have a 99 percent greater risk of heart disease than the obese.

Now we’re talking about the country’s No. 1 natural killer. And if you’re obese, you’re apparently at quite a bit of a less risk than those of normal weight.

This is something cardiac scientists call the obesity paradox, and until now many cardiologists have dismissed it. But it’s something that’s getting harder and harder to dismiss as the data mounts.

I am by no means suggesting that obese people are more healthy than normal weight people. But I am saying that, for some people, extra pounds aren’t necessarily a bad thing. One of the really nice bits of information that genetics will tease out during the next decade or so is the personalization of risk factor information for major diseases.

Thus we can move beyond the generic, one-size-fits-all BMI into a true understanding of our natural risk of disease. Hopefully better informed patients will become healthier patients.

“In fact, obesity is poised to overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., and the majority of those deaths will be directly or indirectly linked to cardiovascular disease.”

“Compared to lean people, overweight and obese people have a much higher incidence of heart attacks, strokes, and death from other cardiovascular causes.”

You cannot argue that being overweight or obese is good for your health.

A former co-worker’s father had a heart attack and the doctor said the only reason he didn’t die was the extra fat around his heart kept it pumping. I’m not a cardiologist, so I don’t claim to understand how that works, but evidently there is some validity to this study.

Welcome back, Eric; I hope you had a restful vacation with your children (and away from us brats on your blog).

With respect to the conclusions, I am not sure that there is a paradox. You wrote that

An analysis of 1,231 heart patients at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that overweight, normal and underweight patients (those with BMIs under 30) had a 76 percent increase in risk of sudden cardiac death compared to obese heart failure patients (see release).

Looking at the release, it appears that the odds of survival a sudden cardiac attack are better if you are obese; however, being obese also makes it more likely that you will suffer such an attack. Thus, the apparent paradox may result from doctors merely being better at working on obese patients, in much the same way that men have a better chance of surviving a cardiac attack than women simply because they have more of them and the system is set up to process men better.

Admittedly knowing nothing about this, and just tossing out a vague thought, but perhaps it has to do with where fat ends up being stored. Clearly if you are obese, the fat is being stored in very obvious places, but since we are talking fatty deposits in the arteries, perhaps in “healthy weight” people, fat is being stored in non-obvious places.

my issue with the bmi, is that they don’t consider bone mass. i’m 6 ft. 195[virtually my whole life] and border on obesity according to bmi. i ran two marathons which included 500 miles of training for each over a 3-4 month period. i never came close to the “perfect weight”.

i think their results are skewed due to the fact they have to many people in this catagory that don’t belong.

So thank you “SCI” guy for giving a headline that morbidly obese people will simply read and go about theier sloven ways slowly chocking from heart disease , not to mention diabetis, debilitating back, knee, foot ankle arthritis,NOT to mention CANCER.That kinda irresponsible piecemeal, intellectually dishonest junk journalism is exactly what this overweight county needs to hear to continue the rise of what once was considered “GLUTTENY”. Whatta yo trying to ing to run for office in the land of increasing obesity? Pathetic diservice .

I eat healthy and exercise almost every day and I am at my ideal weight. I would much prefer for my heart to stop in my sleep when I am older than suffer a life time of obesity and the problems that come with it. So, if I stand a higher chance of my heart stopping, bring it on. Beats spending years confined to a bed.

Ya’ ever stop to think it might be Too Much Information that’s causing all the stir? Maybe the answer lies somewhere between eating healthy, exercising to your potential, fearing only God, and being routinely in a nice state of happiness?

So maybe overweight people are at less risk for sudden heart failure, but they are still at risk for diabetes, problems with kidney function and at higher risk for many types of cancer. I don’t think those risks should be ignored. This headline practically gives free pass to sedentary people who eat a poor diet. Like others who have posted here, I’m sticking with my healthy diet and 30 minutes of exercise a day!

Could part of the reason be that the overweight are taking cholesterol reducing meds and their slim counterparts assume that they don’t need to have the cholesterol checked or have any kind of medical checkup??

ok, So I am 240 6′ tall, and I am obese. However, I am vegatarian M-F, eat reasonably on the weekends. Total chol, 126, no blood problems, no sugar, not tired and can do heavy construction on the weekends… Just because one something is true for one, doesn’t make it true for all. Nothing worse than bad science… stop painting all people with the same brush.

I will argue that obese people might have decent heart strength with carrying all that weight amount. Have you seen the calves of seem of these folks? They are massive muscles. Yet a skinny person who eats like crap and gets no exercise at all probably has a VERY week heart. When do they ever get a work out?

I am wondering if there is any correlation between the number of “normal” and “underweight” people that smoke or engage in other activities that might increase their chances of a heart attack versus “obese” people that maybe don’t smoke or engage in the same activities? I guess you would also have to consider that “obese” people often times become obese because of eating disorders brought on by stress while “normal” and “underweight” people pick up other bad habits to deal with stress that sometimes do not include stuffing their faces.

BTW: I am a 40-year male weighing in at 163 pounds. I am a runner and like some of the other readers would rather live my days doing fun things rather than being stuck on the couch or bed, overweight and tired. Even if I happen live a shorter life than my “obese” peers, I think it is the day-to-day state of mind you have to consider as well. In general, “obese” people tend to be full of resentment and negative vibes, which is usually the contrary in “healthy” people. Stopping here for the sake of the other readers, although I would love to go on.

I’m 5′ 4″, 170 pounds, and I do not “stuff my face” or “sit on the couch or in bed” all day.

Surprise–I’m also a runner and cyclist, so maybe you should climb down off your high horse. I strongly suggest you educate yourself, because you seem to have some ridiculous, ignorant things in your head.

And just so you know, the reason some of us “overweight” people are so resentful just might be because we’re a little sick of people like you assuming we “stuff our faces” and “sit on the couch or in bed” all day.

Now, the study is intriguing but there must be something it’s not telling us a whole story.

Did they have heart scan to begin with? It’s the only way to find out if you have plaque build up in your arteries without going under a knife.

Did they do comprehensive lipid testing for true measurement of LDL for both large and small particles? As far as I know, most doctors don’t do this. Did they test for lipoprotein(a) which seem to happen to thin people far more often than overweight people? Having high lipoprotein(a) is not very good regardless of how much you weigh.

Were they smokers? Thin people who smokes a pack a day is far more likely to suffer heart attack than obese people who doesn’t smoke. However, obese people face higher risk of becoming diabetes which isn’t very fun to deal with.

Don Pitts-

check your lipoprotein(a) level. Also get NMR test to find out a true number of small LDL particles (they measure both large (harmless) and small (very bad) particles). The chances are that you have high level of lp(a) and small LDL particles. The traditional cholesterol test using calculated method isn’t very accurate when it comes to measuring small LDL particles. I often came across this information regarding thin people who likes to run and having high lp(a) and small LDL particle level. Worth a try. Check out Heart Scan Blog website for more information.

The emphasis in your blog is all WRONG. All these patients had heart disease and heart failure. Sudden death was less frequent in the obese heart failure patients than the non-obese heart failure patients. It does not compare sudden death in otherwise seemingly heart healthy obese and non-obese people.

Your article makes it seem that the data can be applied to the general population. That is not what I read in the article summary.

For anyone with sleep apnea (which can be related to obesity) make sure to get that checked out right away. Someone I know has a relative who recently died in her sleep (on account of sleep apnea) and she was only 40. I don’t know if obesity was an issue, but they said she never woke up, so she must have stopped breathing in her sleep or had a heart attack.

Television (in the 60’s) and high fructose syrup (early 70’s) were the singlemost cause of this problem today, and then video games (1980) and the internet (1996) to top it off. That said, I’d like to thank IANVS for submitting his picture above, all in the name of science, of course.

I’ve been busy and am late to this party, but I’ll take a stab. Quote:

An analysis of 1,231 heart patients at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that overweight, normal and underweight patients (those with BMIs under 30) had a 76 percent increase in risk of sudden cardiac death compared to obese heart failure patients

Let me rephrase what this appears to be saying:

We studied heart patients and conclude that if you have had a heart attack in spite of not being obese you are in worse trouble than someone who has a heart attack because of being obese.

So how does that say anything that would indicate that someone who hasn’t had heart problems (or even someone who has) is better off by being (or staying) obese?